AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification

AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification

Founded	2006;19 years ago (2006)
Region	AFC (Asia)
Number of teams	46
2026

The AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification, is a quadrennial international association football competition for women's, organised by the sport's Asian governing body, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to decide the participants for AFC Women's Asian Cup. The competition has been held since 1975. Between 2006 and 2010 the tournament was held biennially, since 2010 it has been held every four years.

History

From 1975 to 2003 the qualification tournament for the final tournament did not exist and the teams were invited to participate. In 2006, the structure saw a major overhaul, with a qualifier tournament introduced for the final championship tournament, allowing all the member nations of AFC to participate. The tournament was also rebranded to 'AFC Women's Asian Cup'.

Since 2006, the qualification tournament has seen various changes in format. In the current format, a total of twelve teams qualify for the final tournament which includes the hosts, top three finishers of previous edition and eight teams who qualify via qualification tournament. ^[1] From the 2029 edition, a total of twelve teams will qualify for the final tournament which includes the hosts and eleven teams who qualify via the second round of the new 2-round qualification tournament. ^[2]

Tournament	Debutants	Number of teams in the qualifiers	Number of teams in the final tournament
1975	Hong Kong*	—	6
	Thailand
	Australia**
	Singapore
	New Zealand**
	Malaysia
1977	Indonesia	—
	Republic of China *
	Japan
1980	India	—
	Western Australia**
1981	Philippines	—	8
1983	None	—	6
1986	China	—	7
	Nepal
1989	North Korea	—	8
1991	South Korea	—	9
1993	None	—	8
1995	Kazakhstan	—	11
	Uzbekistan
1997	Guam	—	11
1999	Vietnam	—	15
2001	None	—	14
2003	Myanmar	—	14
2006	Australia (as an AFC member)	12	9
2008	None	10	8
2010	None	12	8
2014	Jordan*	16	8
2018	None	19	8
2022	Iran	24	12
2026	Bangladesh	34	12

* – Hosts
** – OFC members

See also

• AFC Asian Cup qualifiers

References

1. "AFC to invest in new era of national team and club competitions". AFC. 26 October 2019.
2. "AFC unveils breakthrough reforms to strengthen Women's National Team Competitions". Asian Football Confederation. 13 September 2024. Retrieved 14 September 2024.